


Circus Folk

by captainalston



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 03:10:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1924509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainalston/pseuds/captainalston
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The engineering club hosts a charity carnival and Jim refuses to miss the opportunity, dragging a sleep-deprived Bones along for the fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circus Folk

**Author's Note:**

> This idea's been ruminating in my head for a long while. I may eventually add it to a series, but for now it stands on its own.

As the three milk bottles clattered, Jim threw up an arm and crowed with joy. "How you like me now, Bones?" he shouted, throwing a cheeky grin over his shoulder. The answer was 'not very much.'

When word first flew around about the enginering club setting up a carnival for charity on campus over the weekend, Leonard knew he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. He also knew that the moment Jim Kirk heard about it, the idiot would insist they go and bodily drag Leonard out of his room if he refused. Which had happened this morning at 0800.

What he hadn't expected was Jim to be so good at everyone of these almost definitely rigged games.

"Though I'm not surprised," he muttered to himself.

"Say something, Bones?"

He shook his head. "What the hell circus did you jump out of, kid?"

Jim grinned and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Jealous of my flexibility?"

Leonard rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "You are an infant."

The bright-eyed blond picked up a second softball and tossed it at the newly stacked milk bottles. They clattered to the ground again. The engineering student gave Jim a dirty scowl as he stacked them back up again.

"Gotta keep your eye on the weighted bottle." Jim's stare stayed focused on the bottles, glittering with that exuberant joy he seemed to have about the littlest things. "That's the trick. Hit that one and the other two will topple every time."

"And how in the hell do you know which one's weighted?"

Jim grinned. "You've got an awful mouth for a dad."

Before Leonard could grouse about old age and growing up, his perpetual five-year-old of a best friend picked up and lobbed the final ball, whooping as the bottles crashed down for a third time.

Leonard shook his head as Jim leaned over the counter of the booth, animatedly waving his arm at some prize hanging in the back. If this win didn't go to his head, Leonard was sure that his previous victories over the rope ladder, the "Test of Strength: Bell from Hell", and "Who Wants to Pop Goddamn Balloons at the Crack of Dawn" game had already done wonders for his ego.

When Jim finally leaned back, his arms were full with a white teddy bear that had to be as big as him. Or at least looked as if it was, the way he was bent over backwards, balancing it on his hips. As if the blue bear clipped to his belt from the water balloon station hadn't been ridiculous enough.

"I don't think Gary's gonna like his new roommate."

Jim laughed, bright and loud. It might have been obnoxious two hours ago, but now Leonard could feel his early morning scowl begin to ebb away. "I'm not keeping it, this thing's monstrous! And despite how young you seem to think I am, I did actually grow out of teddy bears a few years back."

Leonard snorted. "Yeah, and what girlfriend are you gonna give this too? Closest thing you have to a girlfriend is Gaila, and I'm not sure a four foot teddy bear is the usual three month anniversary gift for sex-buddies."

Jim rolled his eyes in such a perfect replica of himself that Leonard momentarily worried that there may be a limit to how much time two friends were allowed to spend around one another. The thought was fairly quickly replaced with panic as he found his vision suddenly flooded with white fluffy fur.

"The bear's for you, obviously."

There was a moment of silence that Leonard contributed completely to his own scrabbling as he tried to get a firm hold on the bear. Once he'd managed to get a tentative grip on it, he slid the bear down till he could see over the top of its head and stare down those baby-blue eyes.

His throat felt oddly dry. "Ah, not that I don't appreciate it and all, but I don't generally accept gifts larger than me." His face felt flushed, but he attributed that to the fuzzy ear tickling his jawline and to absolutely nothing else.

"It's not for _you_ you," Jim said immediately, waving his hands about as if to erase the misunderstanding from existence. "I meant--I thought it would be a nice gift for Joanna. For her birthday. You know, from Uncle Jim," he said, dropping his gazing and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh."

Leonard looked down at the bear and imagined little Jo opening it on her birthday, so happy and excited she'd fall right into the bear's embrace as she squeezed it round the neck. "Don't know how I'm going to compete with a gift like this," he said finally, picking at the brown bow tie around the bear's neck.

Jim grinned and swept the bear around of Leonard's arms with a haughty smirk. "Don't even try, kakyuusei. Now let's get out of here before the engineers start to resent us."

"'Us?'" Leonard said indignantly, though he followed Jim's jaunty gait out of the carnival ground. "Don't 'us' this. You're the one sweeping up prizes left and right." Though he had to give Jim some credit--other than the grumpy blue bear and Joanna's massive bear, he'd given away all his other winnings to the little kids who struggled to get consolation prizes.

"It was a carnival."

Leonard blinked. "What?"

"When I was ten," Jim said, walking at Leonard's side when his gaze was a million miles and thirteen years away. "A carnival--well, more like a fair really--they set themselves up in Iowa City for the summer. Used to bike thirty minutes every morning to watch them set up. Learned a lot of tricks that summer. All the gaffs and how to spot a mark."

He threw back his head when he laughed. All teeth and big grins.

"Marco was a real sleezy guy. I learned a lot from him that summer."

"I can just imagine," Leonard muttered with an eye roll and a smirk. "Now hurry up or it'll be eleven o'clock by the time you get that monstrosity in my room and I'll be damned if we miss breakfast at Patricia's. Your treat."

"My treat?" Jim squawked. He tried to throw his hands up in indignation, but had to stop halfway up or risk tossing Joanna's bear in the river. "Why's it my treat? I got your kid a bear!"

"And you woke me up at eight in the morning to show off at a carnival!"

"Well sue me for making sure you have some fun in your life," Jim muttered, sticking out his tongue and wedging his chin into the shoulder of the bear. "When you see Jo-Jo," he whispered, conspiratorially, "Make sure she knows how mean her old man can be."

"Infant."

"Grandpa."


End file.
